15 replies to this topic

[omthkkr]

Would it be useful if a future-telling machine was ever invented??

Because, it would just show the future, i.e, if it shows one is going to die tomorrow, from an accident for instance, he would have to live one day in grief, for if he tries to save himself from that  cause, here by staying indoors, then that machine would prove ineffective, and if he does die like that, then he had to live 1 day in grief. So, the machine would not be useful as such, but still, you would know the future.

Comment on this paradox...make it clearer if you can.
Thanks

[0_o]

a time machine will never be invented otherwise the future government would have used it

[0_o]

also,that person would be stuck in a time loop because since the accident never happend he woudnt have prevented it so he would be stuck in a infinite time loop of preventing and not preventing the accident.

[Lilwisegirl]

If you could only see the future, it wouldn't help at all. If you saw anything bad, you would desperately try to prevent it, worsening and maybe creating the problem. If the information was given to the whole world, people would try to store up supplies, hoping to make it through the end of the world. They would hurt or kill other people to do so, again, making or maybe creating the problem.

[phaze]

If the machine predicted the future as if you have not used the machine there is no paradox. Even if the universe is deterministic however, the machine would have to account for every variable in the universe apart from itself. This limitation could be reduced if you only wanted to see a certain distance into the future and provided that nothing moves faster than the speed of light*. If you wanted to see the future in a years time and you knew every variable in the bubble 1 light year from the machine.

What is really going to bake your noodle is if the human brain already does this to a limited ability and how we could could tell if it did.

*Does God travel faster than light?

[Lilwisegirl]

To answer your * question, God Himself doesn't travel faster than the speed of light, but His influence can, because it has no mass. At least, that's how it probably works.

[phaze]

To answer your * question, God Himself doesn't travel faster than the speed of light, but His influence can, because it has no mass. At least, that's how it probably works.

Then the machine would not work unless God wills it to and we have no way of telling if it is working. All we can say is according to the machine this probably would happen if I hadn't used the machine. It also raises queries about fate and free-will depending if the machine is thought to be also able to predict the contents of the human mind.

[bonanova]

Would it be useful if a future-telling machine was ever invented??

 

If the future that I saw did not directly involve me, then Yes.

Just one look, followed by one trip to Vegas, would be very useful.

[BMAD]

2 comments.

1. Why do most take the negative view? What would happen if the future machine show a positive event? A future marriage, wealth enhancement etc. would that only lead to a good day as you know it is going to work out for you? Morality aside:

2. The problem, IMO, lies in the fact of what Phaze said, since the machine must look at every variable outside of itself then that must include the idea that the machine must also assume that the person themselves has no knowledge of the future as well and so, providing the individual with this knowledge introduces a variable that it has not calculated before meaning that the prediction it calculated prior to showing the future to the user is based on a different set of equations and thus is fundamentally not predicting the future of the person that knows. Now the way around this. I believe is a future machine that shows the future to a user of someone that the individual, even if they tried, could never impact. E.G. Showing a medieval knight the election of the prime minister of Malaysia in the year 2072 may be a safe.

[phaze]

Showing a medieval knight the election of the prime minister of Malaysia in the year 2072 may be a safe.

I don't think even this idea would be safe, as the showing still changes the attitudes of the knight you could bring about the concept of democracy early in a feudal based society. This in turn could affect the prime ministers campaign and subsequent election.  The only way to be sure that a small change in the past does not mess up the future indicated is to make sure that the two time periods cannot be related at all. If instead you showed  the knight the election of the alien prime minister of a planet as at most many years in the future as light years away it might work. This is dependant on no causal relationship being able to travel faster than light